Manipulation of the UN System
to Promote Abortion Must Stop!

Dear Supporter of the Family,

We are deeply concerned about recent developments at the United Nations regarding the promotion of abortion. Various entities within the UN system have ramped up their abortion propaganda campaign despite the fact that UN documents call for protection of life “before as well as after birth.” One of the main strategies abortion rights activists are using is to manipulate the UN system by twisting provisions in existing treaties that UN member nations signed onto decades ago.

One of the most egregious examples of this is a carefully crafted report the UN Secretary General recently submitted to the UN General Assembly. It was written by a United Nations “Special Rapporteur,” Anand Grover, on the “right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.” (UN Special Rapporteurs are supposedly unbiased experts in their fields.)

Sounds nice doesn’t it? Everybody has right to health, right?

Well, according to the UN almost everybody does, unless you happen to be a human being residing in your mother’s womb. In that case, you are considered by one UN Committee to be a source of cruel and inhumane torture to your mother who has a right to abort you so she can have better health.

I am not making this up! That is exactly the logic of the UN.

Mr. Grover’s report, which will be considered by the UN General Assembly, claims that laws restricting abortion violate a woman’s “right to health,” which, he says, includes a right to “sexual and reproductive health.” He further claims that this supposed “right to sexual and reproductive health includes an unrestricted right to abortion, which he says includes a right to have governments make abortion “accessible” to all women.

In other words, his report carefully builds on itself using circular logic in an attempt to establish a right to government-funded abortions for all. He labels laws that limit abortion “impermissible barriers to the realization of women’s right to health” that “must be eliminated.” He further claims, “States must take measures to ensure that legal and safe abortion services are available, accessible, and of good quality.”

You would think that a UN expert charged with outlining what the world must do to improve the health of its citizens might focus on nutrition, clean water, sanitary conditions, inoculations, combating major diseases and things that are causing people to die en masse.

But no, Mr. Grover’s report is focused almost exclusively on legalizing abortion and promoting other controversial issues.

His report directly attacks national sovereignty and religious freedom when he states, “Public morality cannot serve as a justification for enactment or enforcement of laws that may result in human rights violations.” [Read: if they restrict abortion or comprehensive sexuality education.] The report also falsely claims that all laws must be “evidenced-based,” which is UN-speak for saying laws cannot be based on religious and moral values.

This runs counter to Article 29 (2) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which recognizes the right of nations to establish laws that meet “the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.”

His report also slams abstinence education and promotes condoms and sexual freedom, telling governments they must abolish parental consent laws.

He then falsely asserts that “comprehensive education and information on sexual and reproductive health is an essential component of “the right to health” and “the right to education.” Click here to read our report on the serious harms of the kind of “comprehensive sexuality education” Mr. Grover is claiming is a human right.

In support of his position Grover references a controversial report by another UN Special Rapporteuron “the right to education.” This report was so controversial it was rejected by the General Assembly. It was rejected by member nations largely because it claimed governments are obligated to provide comprehensive sexuality education that is sensitive to “sexual diversity” among other things. (Click here to read our policy brief on this outrageous report on the “right to education.”)

If all this isn’t bad enough, a UN committee monitoring compliance of states parties to the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment just told Ireland it must enact laws to legalize abortion to be in compliance with this treaty. (See page 7 of this document.) This, despite the fact that Ireland protects the unborn in its constitution.

So now the UN considers pregnancy to be cruel and inhumane!

Whatever happened to motherhood being entitled to special protection as called for in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?

This continues a pattern of UN committees trying to reinterpret carefully negotiated UN treaties to somehow include previously undiscovered rights. They are just inventing such things out of thin air because these UN treaties say absolutely nothing about abortion.

In yet another abuse of the UN system, about half of the UN member states that just came under UN scrutiny through the UN’s Universal Periodic Review were questioned regarding their laws restricting abortion even though the treaties they are bound by say nothing about abortion.

Again, this is just one more way the UN system is being abused and misused to promote abortion.

Finally, a resolution on maternal mortality that was just negotiated by the UN’s Human Rights Council openly promotes the legalization of abortion, claiming this is the best way to save women’s lives.

The debate around these negotiations included many false assertions such as where abortion is legalized fewer women die. (Click here to see our policy brief on maternal mortality that refutes many of the false claims made during these negotiations.) It was reported that when delegates complained about the false claims and objected to the pro-abortion language their positions were largely ignored in the final draft.

This widespread abuse of the UN system to promote abortion must be stopped.

We will be working with UN member nations over the next several months to counteract these dangerous developments and expose these abuses of the UN system. This aggressive promotion of abortion runs counter to the laws and cultures of many of these UN member nations and has no basis whatsoever in international law.

We will update you soon and tell you how you can help us stop this onslaught.

Sincerely,
Sharon Slater
President

News Items of Interest

Abortion

U.S. Congress Investigating Planned Parenthood. The House Energy and Commerce Committee will be looking at the organization’s “institutional practices and policies” as outlined in a letter from Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fl), chairman of the committee’s oversight panel. Stearns has requested documents and other information from Planned Parenthood in order to determine its use of federal funding and compliance with various laws. Planned Parenthood receives about $1 million a day in U.S. taxpayer funds. Read more here.

Study Finds Abortion Drug Causes More Pain and Emotional Distress for Women. The study published in the obstetrics journal BJOG found that compared to women who had undergone a surgical abortion, women who took the abortion drug mifepristone reported more pain, more vaginal bleeding, and had a greater degree of “intrusive” psychological symptoms such as unwanted thoughts or nightmares. The study was performed by researchers at Newcastle University in the UK. Read more here.

Mexico Supreme Court Rules Life Begins at Conception. The court, after three days of debate, was one vote shy of the required eight votes needed to overturn a provision of Baja California’s state constitution that says life begins at conception. A similar law in the state of San Luis will be addressed by the court next. Read more here.

Liechtenstein Rejects Legalized Abortion. Following a contentious battle, 52.3 percent of citizens voted not to decriminalize abortion. Under existing law, abortion in Liechtenstein is illegal unless the life of the mother is in danger or the woman is under 14. Women who undergo abortion can be imprisoned for one year. Doctors who perform abortions can be imprisoned for three years. Read more here.

Partial-birth Abortion Ban Passes in Michigan Legislature. The bill was approved by the House 75-34 and in the Senate by 29-0. The measure now goes to Governor Rick Snyder who is likely to sign the bill. Past attempts to enact a ban on the abortion procedure were unsuccessful because of vetoes from former Governor Jennifer Granholm and court rulings. Read more here.

Obama Directs Funding to Abortion. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has given Planned Parenthood of New Hampshire $1 million after their funding was cut off by the state legislature. Some feel the action by the Obama administration is an abuse of states’ rights. Read more here.

Alabama Supreme Court Recognizes Unborn Child. Even though the fetus could not have lived outside the womb, the court ruled that April Mack can sue over the death of her unborn child who was killed as the result of a car accident. Mack was 12 weeks pregnant at the time of the accident and suffered a miscarriage shortly afterward. Read more here.

Homosexuality Related

Scientific Journal Article Documents Homosexuals Can Change. The article was published in the Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy and gives the final results of a longitudinal study of individuals who have wanted to change their sexual orientation. In addition to showing that people can and do change, their researchers also found that the attempt to change is not harmful for the average patient. Read more here.

UK Drops Ban on Homosexual Blood Donations. There will still be a deferral period of 12 months, meaning that men who have had sex with men in the past 12 months will still not be permitted to donate blood. Restrictions on blood donation by practicing homosexuals were introduced in the 1980s due to fear of HIV contamination. The practice has been questioned both medically and ethically for years. Read more here.

American Library Association ‘Banned Book Week' Homosexual Promotion. Some activists believe that the American Library Association’s (ALA) annual list of books that have been banned from schools and libraries in the previous year is intentionally promoting a political agenda. And Tango Makes Three, a pro-homosexual children’s book, is the number one “banned” book on this year’s list. When the ALA was asked how many complaints the book had received, the response was only four complaints nationwide. Read more here.

‘Out in Schools’ Program in Canada Indoctrinates Children in Homosexuality. The “Out in Schools program, which claims to be an anti-bullying program is taught to children in public schools and includes links to sexually explicit homosexual websites. Pro-family activists have filed complaints and would like to see the program eliminated. Read more here.

Planner for Elementary Students Celebrates ‘Sex Workers,’ Transgenderism, ‘LGBTTQQI2S’ Agenda. A Toronto father was shocked when he found on his first-grade son’s school calendar the special “Days of Significance” recognizing transgenders, prostitutes, and female genital mutilation, among other things. The school board is conducting an investigation into the concerns of parents. Read more here.

Marriage Related

Homosexual Marriage Threatening Religious Freedom in the U.S. Observers are already seeing the impact in states where homosexual marriage has been legalized. Read more here.

Majority In Great Britain Oppose Homosexual Marriage, Adoption. The survey released by the Office for National Statistics, a government agency, shows opposition in virtually all age groups. More than half opposed homosexual marriage, and more than two-thirds opposed homosexual adoption. Read more here.

Report Shows Relationship Between Marriage, Family Structure, and Children's Educational Attainment. The College Board in the U.S. recently reported that SAT reading scores have dropped to their lowest point in nearly 40 years. Family Research Council has released a report that shows that a child’s home environment, in particular, the marriage of the parents, affects educational achievement. Read more here. Read the report here.

New Hampshire Same-sex Marriage Repeal Advances. The House Judiciary subcommittee panel voted 3-1 on a bill that would repeal the state’s same-sex marriage law and instead bring back civil unions for both same-sex couples and heterosexual couples. The full House cannot vote on the bill until sometime in 2012. Read more here.

News Items of General Interest

‘Healthy’ Messages in UK: Primary School Sex-ed and Secondary School Contraceptives. The UK Healthy Schools Programme is being used to impose permissive sex education on children. Schools that choose not to follow the program are denied “Healthy School status.” Read more here.

South African Girls Given Contraceptive Injections Without Parental Consent. Students in sixth and seventh grade, mostly between the ages of 10-13 years, were injected after a presentation by members of the Dora Nginza Hospital’s family planning unit. Parents had received a letter notifying them of the presentation, but there was no mention of the injections. Doctors said the contraceptives could delay puberty or disrupt the girls’ menstrual cycles. Read more here.

DC Students to Be Tested on Sex, Contraception, Drugs. According to the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, the exam will be the first standardized test on health and sex education given to students in the U.S. The exam will have 50 questions and will be given to fifth, eighth and tenth graders. Officials say the test will help determine what students know about risky behavior. Read more here.

Study Finds Fathers Less Likely to Die of Heart Trouble. The study by the American Association of Retired People (AARP), the U.S. government and several universities involved 138,000 men and was published by the journal Human Reproduction.The study found that fathers were 17 percent less likely to have died of cardiovascular causes than childless men were. Read more here.

U.S. House Holds Hearings on China “One Child” Policy. The hearings were held by Rep. Chris Smith’s Human Rights Subcommittee and focused among other things on the Obama Administration’s policy toward China on this issue. Specifically, Chairman Smith called on Vice President Joe Biden to explain his comment during his recent trip to China that the U.S. would not “second guess” the Chinese regime. Read more here.

New Zealand Parents Shocked at Graphic Sex Education. The parents are objecting to the detailed and graphic lessons being presented to their children as young as 12 years. Read more here.